Chapter Forty-One: Upgrades


"While I would not say our current predicament is ideal, I think we can all agree that the situation could be much worse. Humanity is a resilient force," Ozpin said to Qrow and Phoenix in response to their pessimistic view on their group's current situation. The three of them were having a discussion about everything that had happened recently.

"That resilience won't do us much good when we've got people working with the enemy and sending pro huntsmen to their deaths," Phoenix pointed out.

"Leo's treachery is an unfortunate reminder that there are indeed a misguided few who have filled their hearts with malice. It doesn't take a great number of people to cause harm, but I still believe that there are far more people in this world willing to prevent it."

As if on cue, Ruby entred. "Uh, excuse me."

"Miss Rose, come, join us," Ozpin requested. "We were just about to gather everyone to discuss our next move."

"Oh, great," Ruby said, taking a seat next to Phoenix. "If it's okay to ask…" she started nervously.

"Of course," Qrow reassured her.

"It's just… we've been talking about the relic at Haven and the Spring Maiden, but what about the Fall Maiden? Does that mean Salem has the Beacon relic?"

Phoenix's barely kept from panicking as he realized how much more dangerous their enemy may have become. "Damn it!" he thought, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?!" Ozpin and Qrow, however, didn't seem to share Phoenix's concern.

"Very astute Miss Rose," Ozpin complimented her. "I was wondering who would be the first to ask."

"I would've thought one of our detectives would've done it," Qrow added. Phoenix, assuming from Ozpin and Qrow's lack of concern that the relic was still secure, calmed down. He was now focused on a combination of being proud of Ruby for figuring things out before him and annoyed at Qrow for his comment.

"No, thankfully she does not," Ozpin answered. "While it is true that the relic at Haven is very much at risk, and for now it should remain our primary focus. Let's just say I made finding the relic at Beacon a bit more challenging than at the other schools.

"That's good to hear," Ruby said the same thing Phoenix was thinking.

"It is, but let's not forget the challenges that still lie before us. Now, is there anything else we can help you with?"

"I do have one more question." Seeing both Ruby and Phoenix looking at his cane he added, "No, my cane is not the relic."

"I have no more questions." Everyone chuckled.

"While this cane is indeed very precious to me, it is also just that, precious to me. While I admit it still has a few more tricks up its sleeve, I can firmly say that being a relic isn't one of them. Now why don't the two of you go and get the other students."

Before they could leave, Qrow's scroll started to ring. "Yeah," he said as he answered it. "Okay… yeah, we'll be there." He hung up and put it on the table.

"Who was it?" Ruby asked.

"It's Leo," he told her. "Says he had a breakthrough with the council. Thinks he might be able to get together a small raiding party for the bandits. He wants us to meet up at the school tomorrow night to walk us through it."

"It's obviously a trap," Phoenix pointed out.

"Agreed," Ozpin said. "It's best if you inform the others to prepare themselves for a fight." Ruby and Phoenix nodded in agreement and left.

As the walked down the hall to the others' rooms, Phoenix decided to make a suggestion. "After we've told the other's what's going on, maybe we could go shopping at the Mynstral market."

"Why's that?" she asked.

"Odds are we're going to be walking straight into a trap tomorrow night, and I've got a couple of ideas for things that might give us an edge in a fight. I figured that you might want to come with me to buy some of the parts we need for them. You could probably come up with some stuff that I didn't think of."

"Okay, sure. Sounds like fun!"


Phoenix and Ruby wandered the market in search of the parts they needed for the planned upgrades. They'd been able to almost all of them with ease. The last one, however, was proving incredibly difficult to find. "I'm starting to think that this may be the only thing they don't have here," Phoenix grumbled. The two of them were looking everywhere as they walked. Everywhere except right in front of them. This lead to them bumping into one of the vendors' stalls.

"Oh my gosh, we're so sorry! We were distracted looking for a-" Ruby started to apologize, but stopped when she saw a certain item that the man was selling. "Phoenix, look! He has it!" she exclaimed excitedly as she pointed to the object.

"Awesome! How much will that cost?" Phoenix asked.

"5,000 Lien," the vendor answered.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?" Phoenix requested. "I must've misheard you. I could've sworn I just heard you say that thing cost 5,000 Lien."

"You heard right kid. 5,000 Lien."

"That's absolutely insane!" Phoenix and Ruby yelled. "Something like that is worth 500 at most."

The vendor chuckled at their shared reaction and assessment of the item's value. "Look kids, shipments of this kind of tech from Atlas have stopped, so these things are pretty hard to come by," the vendor told them. "Something I'm sure you've noticed. I'm probably the only person in the market selling something like this."

"Do we even have that kind of money?" Ruby asked Phoenix nervously.

"Yeah," he answered, "but it'll take the last of the money I brought from Vale. We don't have much of a choice though. If we don't get this, then the the design won't work." He reluctantly took the money out.

"How about you hand that money over to me instead," someone suggested from behind them before Phoenix could give the vendor the money. They turned around to see a masked man holding a knife standing behind them. The duo looked at each other and grinned.


"MY CABBAGES!" a merchant cried out in despair as the robber flew into his stand, sending cabbages flying everywhere.

"Now, where were we?" Phoenix asked as he turned back to the vendor selling the part. Before he could purchase the item, they were interrupted again. This time the cause was a police officer.

"Freeze!" he ordered. "I'm taking you in for questioning.

Ruby and Phoenix remembered the last time they were brought into questioning and how long it took to get out. They looked at each other again, nodding in silent agreement on what to do.

"Thanksforthepartgottagobye," Ruby quickly said as Phoenix slammed the money on the market stand and grabbed the part. She then grabbed him and used her semblance to help them make their escape.


Ruby and Phoenix finally made their way back to the house after evading the police. Phoenix let out a dejected sigh. "What's wrong? Oh no! Did something happen to the parts?" Ruby asked him, worried that the trip had been for nothing.

"Don't worry, it's not anything like that. I was just kinda hoping to use some of that money to take us out to eat or something for a date," he explained, clearly upset his plan had failed.

"That's alright," Ruby comforted him. "Working on these upgrades will probably be more fun than something like that anyway."

"I suppose you're right," he said, smiling and giving her a quick kiss.

"Only you two could turn working on weapons into a date," Yang said as she walked into the room.

"Yang, just the person we wanted to see," Phoenix said, ignoring her comment. "We were hoping you'd lend us a hand with something we plan on working on."


After a lot of convincing and a night to think things over, Phoenix and Ruby managed to get Yang to allow the two of them to borrow her arm. "You two better not blow it up."

"When has anything I've worked on ever exploded?" Ruby asked, trying to reassure Yang.

"Well…" Yang recalled all of Ruby's weapon designs that had gone wrong.

"Rhetorical question!" The two of them quickly retreated to the workshop Phoenix had set up in his room before Yang could change her mind.

"For a moment there I was worried that she'd say no," Phoenix commented. "Then we'd have spent 5,000 Lien on something we can't even use."


A loud crashing sound could be heard throughout the house, originating from Phoenix's room. "What's with all the noise?!" Qrow demanded to know as he stormed into the room. "My headache is bad enough as it is." When he saw the hole in the room's wall his question changed to, "What went wrong this time?"

"Nothing. It actually works even better we thought it would," Ruby told him excitedly.

"Right… Well I figured I should tell the two of you that we're going to go talk to Leo, so you should get ready." He started to leave. "And don't forget to give Yang her arm back!"


Sorry you had to wait for a short chapter. I'm not sure how long the wait will be for the next one. I have a general idea of what I want to write. It's just a matter of figuring out exactly how I want to write it.

Before anyone says anything, I was just too lazy to come up with something they might be buying. I had some ideas, but they'd ruin the surprise of a couple of the upgrades Phoenix and Ruby made. I didn't describe them working on the upgrades for the same reason. Thanks for reading!